Alright...I've finally gotten around to commenting on the episode, and...AWESOME!
As usual, writing is brilliant (go Toni!), acting superb, directing fantastic, music fascinating, and...and...and......yeah, I could go on. You get the picture. There are some nitpicks, as there always are, but I usually shrug them off. Nothin' is perfect! It's the overall story that counts for me. And this one rocked.
And I actually understood more Russian than I thought I would!
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Loved the voiceover stuff--well, I usually do anyway--though this time it seemed to really dig at the core of human-machine relations, and how the soul plays a part. I think this was illustrated not only by the dancing, which Summer was magnificent at, but by the music to which Cameron danced to...the same music from the basement (thank you T:SCC wiki; I figured it was Chopin, but wasn't sure after I saw the episode). And why was Derek near tears when he saw this? Because Cameron was dancing? Because of the music? Or both? I really want to know what the heck happened in that basement! So many possibilities, and I can't narrow it down yet.
Speaking of Chopin, I had to look this up again, because my memory was a bit hazy and wasn't sure this was attributed to Chopin, but it was: *It is said that Chopin was the "first composer to reveal the soul of the piano," and was the first composer to, "make the piano sing"--which, understanding what a piano is, "the least vocal of all instruments; a percussive contraption, which every note starts at it's loudest, then fades...
a box of tricks," is quite amazing; where "no sorcerer ever drew more magical illusions from it than Chopin."
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Those poor Russians. (Dima! Maria! Noooo!) Dammit. I was hoping to see more out of them, but...ashes to ashes, I suppose...just like Andy...just like Jordan.... And Cameron just walking out, leaving them to their fate, not even taking a moment to look back; that was just...cold. A reminder that Cameron is still a machine...who's still learning.
I agree with the idea that Cameron is able to eat because she is an advanced infiltration terminator model (or whatever). Think about it. If she was put into a situation that required her to eat, she could get away with it; she wouldn't be tagged a "machine"...at least not right away.
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Then there's Ellison...those moth wings were getting a little singed in that fire, weren't they? And he gets stabbed in the leg?! (Is that a reference to T1 when the Terminator blew up at the end and sent shards flying, and one of them went into Sarah's left leg? Or is it just coincidence?) Poor guy. He's just stumbled into Sarah's nightmare. I really liked that it was Sarah who pulled him out of the fire--it was really a beautiful moment. Nice contrast to Cameron. (And yeah, I think Ellison knows that it was Sarah--no illusions. Besides, didn't Silberman mention Sarah took the hand right afterwards anyway?)
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It was interesting to hear Derek's sympathy for Sarah when John talked about her being in the mental hospital--the utter hopelessness that can result from four walls surrounding you.
It also helps illuminate the point of why John is so special...because he won't give up. Ever. He'll have weak moments, sure, he is human, but in the end, I think for John it'll always be about fighting until the bitter end.
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It was also nice to see the contrast between how Derek looks at things and how John and Sarah look at the same things, like personal space, for example. We, the audience have seen the hellish future, we understand, but Sarah and John haven't; they've just been told of the horrors. I don't think they truly and fully understand what Derek and Kyle and everybody else from the future have gone through. And they can't, really. Not yet, at least. I think they're fully aware of what's at stake, but at least they can sleep, even if they see nightmares.
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I liked Ellison's reaction after putting Silberman in the mental hospital. It was like he was contemplating whether or not he wanted to continue down this road; Or, he knows he's already moving along the path and can't turn back, and he's afraid he'll end up crazy...or dead.
Then when he read Matthew 7:19, "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire," I couldn't help but think about the end of T2 when the T-1000 and Uncle Bob were put into the molten fiery pit of doom.
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That big stack of tapes made me wonder, just a little bit, if Kyle Reese's tape from T1 is still floating around out there. I would think it would be tied to Sarah Connor's files, but who knows....
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As to the signing of the papers, and all that...yeah, I felt that it didn't mesh clearly with what was happening in T2. I mean, I guess you could say Sarah signed the papers, realized her mistake, was thinking of way to get out of there to get John (the motherly love drive); then the desire to leave was
hastened by the knowledge of the terminator that the feds put in front of her...so she sees the paper clip and forms a new plan to escape (the motherly protective drive).
I don't know, I can go back and forth with it; for me, it works within the show, and if I had not watched T2 recently, then some of those details would've been lost to me.
Overall, a really great "quiet" episode.
*Source of them Chopin quotes: Nice bit of audio I got a while ago which talks about Chopin's life and his works, called, appropriately enough, "Chopin: Life and Works," with narration by Jeremy Siepmann.